Indian Prime Minister concluded his three-day visit to the US, arriving in Delhi on Sunday to a grand welcome from BJP leaders and workers at the airport. The US visit is widely seen as a productive one with PM Modi holding bilateral talks with US President Joe Biden, participating in Quad summit and also addressing the United Nations General Assembly. But some unscrupulous factions are trying to malign PM Modi's image by spreading demeaning content.
Claim
An image has gone viral on social media, which shows the front page of The New York Times print edition dated today. The lead article on the NYT page is on PM Modi, with a picture of him signing a document. The article carries the headline: "Last, Best Hope of Earth" and it is followed by a summary, which reads: "World's most loved and most powerful leader, is here to bless us."
This image of the NYT article has gone viral on social media, with many users sharing it widely assuming the article is praising the Indian Prime Minister.
Fact check
International Business Times reviewed the viral image of PM Modi on the front page of NYT and found that The New York Times hasn't published the article. In fact, there are many red flags in the image that goes on to prove that the article is fake.
Firstly, if you look closely, the spelling of the month "September" is wrong. Secondly, the language of the viral article image makes it look suspicious. For instance, right below the article is a sentence that reads: "His Highness, Modiji is signing on a blank a4 paper to bless our country... har har mahadev."
The grammatical errors and poorly-framed sentences with snarky references are unlike the standards of the NYT.
We ran a reverse image search to find PM Modi's photo of signing a document, which brings up several articles on PM Modi but none of them source back to NYT. The original source of the image is Narendra Modi's official website.
Meanwhile, the actual front page of NYT's Sunday, September 26 edition is shown below:
Speaking to IBTimes regarding the nature of the viral image on social media, Prem Bhandari, a prominent voice of NRI's based out of NYC, said: "It is so unfortunate to see some unscrupulous elements unsuccessfully trying to malign the image of one of the strongest PM's India has ever had. I condemn it. Such people try to demean what India has achieved globally in terms of respect and power under PM Modi. But these also mean that our PM is successful that unscrupulous elements have to indulge in such despicable acts since they've nothing that they can use against him."
Hence, IBTimes has arrived at the conclusion that the viral image of NYT front page about PM Modi is untrue and it is clearly meant for mischief.
